Giant Condom Billboard on I-95 Promotes Safe Sex

(CBS Tampa) — Drivers on Interstate 95 in Florida may be doing a double take.

A billboard featuring a giant condom can currently be seen while driving down Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale, the Sun Sentinel reports.

In an effort to raise awareness about sexually transmitted diseases in the Boward County area, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has turned to unconventional measures to get its message to the masses.

The billboard displays a large condom with the message “Why Worry?” written across it. At the bottom of the billboard is a web address, useacondom.com, which directs visitors to the LA-based organization’s website where they can gain more information about safe sex practices.

“We feel like we need to bring safer sex more to the forefront and de-stigmatize and de-sensationalize condoms and make them just like Q-tips or other products,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS group. “We’ve really seen a diminishing use of condoms in recent years as people are less afraid of HIV than they were previously.”

Of course, a few complaints have been made by parents and religious leaders claiming that the message is inappropriate for children.

Weinstein’s rebuttal is simple: “The big problem in this country is we are moralistic in our attitudes and hedonistic in our behaviors, which is why we have higher rates of STDs than other developed countries.”